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UC Davis Arboretum's 'beloved green warrior' fighting cancer again

GoFundMe drive supports treatment for longtime nursery manager Taylor Lewis

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED NOV 21, 2023

Taylor Lewis has been the nursery manager at the UC Davis Arboretum's Teaching Nursery. Courtesy GoFundMe

For almost a decade, Taylor Lewis has been an ever-smiling leader and garden guru at the UC Davis Arboretum’s Teaching Nursery.

As nursery manager, he oversees the production of thousands of plants each spring and fall. He is often their best salesman, too, making recommendations of water-wise wonders that not only look beautiful but can help make our suburban neighborhoods more environmentally friendly.

He’s maintained his sunny can-do attitude through myriad challenges including the 2017 loss of his lower right leg to cancer.

Lewis has lost his hair but not his smile.

After years of remission, that cancer is back. Lewis is now undergoing treatment for angiosarcoma, an extremely rare form of cancer.

“It’s pretty rare for someone to get it once,” Lewis said. “It’s radically rare to have it twice. … It was a shock.”

Lewis, 47 and the father of three, is preparing to travel to Houston, Texas, for further treatment starting in mid December. He’s already started chemo – and lost his lush strawberry blonde hair. “I hadn’t seen my skull since I was 15,” he said with a characteristic chuckle.

“I was healthy going into (treatment); that helps a lot,” Lewis added. “But it’s going to be a long slog.”

During the early months of 2023, Lewis noticed a rash on the small of his back. In a month, it doubled in size. His doctors at first thought it was dermatitis; the chances of it being angiosarcoma were so slim.

Lewis’s cancer was finally diagnosed in late September and he stepped away from his Arboretum duties to start treatment. “I’m going to give it all I got,” he said.

Lewis consulted with doctors at University of California, San Francisco. In Texas, he’ll consult with Dr. Vinod Ravi, the leading expert in treating angiosarcoma in the U.S., at the University of Texas’ M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

“It’s expensive,” Lewis said. “It costs a lot of money just to have them look at my records.”

Friends and Arboretum patrons are now rallying around their “beloved green warrior,” raising funds to help support his treatment and recovery.

“Taylor's unwavering commitment to friends and family, coupled with his boundless positive energy and dedication to the Arboretum and the environment, has deeply impacted our community,” wrote longtime UC Davis Arboretum volunteer Kili Bong on Lewis’ GoFundMe page. “His ever-present good nature, invaluable guidance to both budding and seasoned gardeners, and his innate ability to help them design and cultivate the gardens of their dreams, have touched countless lives over the years. Today, he needs our support more than ever.”

The grassroots campaign has raised more than $55,000 so far, quickly exceeding its goal of $50,000. Find it here: https://shorturl.at/dP569

“There are a lot of people out there who love me,” Lewis said. “I’m really grateful for this support. I’ve already spent more than $10,000 (out of pocket) on treatment. I feel very fortunate. I’m lucky to have this support and these people in my life. It makes all this easier.”

Lewis continues to be optimistic. He’s focusing on his treatment and being as healthy as he can be.

“Nobody’s beaten this one; there are no good outcomes, at least not yet,” Lewis observed. “But I can always be the first.”

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Keywords:

Taylor Lewis UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery UC Davis Sacramento gardening plant sales plant expert cancer watere-wise plants

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Flowers in My Back Yard Series

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Garden checklist for week of Aug. 16

During this break in the heat, feed your garden. Make sure to water before and after applying fertilizer.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.

* Plant potatoes.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers. Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting.

* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.

* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that’s still small.

* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don't let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.

* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Give them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production for next year.

* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias and container plants. Always water before fertilizing.

* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.

* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials, then give them a boost of fertilizer. Make sure to water plants before feeding. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

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